"Listening to Christmas"
Luke 2:13-19
Key Truth—This passages teaches us how God speaks to us and how we can listen to him.
What do you hear when you listen for Christmas? Christmas carols? Noise of busy shoppers? Laughter of a child on Christmas morning?
Every year we put my Darth Vader ornament on the tree and when we turn on the lights we hear "The force is with you young Luke Skywalker. But you are not a jedi yet."
Listening to others is a tricky thing. If you are not really listening then it is very hard to know that you are not listening. Someone ever say to you, "Hey, I was talking to you" and then you look up and say, "Oh, what did you say?"
In the Christmas story God is speaking to us. The question is, "Are we listening?" Three things we need to do to truly hear what Christmas is saying to us. (1) Listen to the Shepherds (2) Listen to the Message (3) Listen with Your Heart.
Listen to the Shepherds
The shepherds received the message of Christmas from the angels. God does speak though angels, visions, and dramatic spectacles.
Illus. God speaking to Abraham, Jacob and the stairway from heaven, Moses and the burning bush, visions of Daniel the Prophet
Although God in the Bible does speak through visions and angels and spectacles in dramatic fashion, He usually speaks to us through shepherds—the ordinary people and circumstances of life.
Shepherds were very low in social standing in Jewish life. They were considered commoners. Their testimony was not used in courts because they were considered to be people without integrity.
Illus. I have seen the Shepherd's fields in Bethlehem and the caves where the shepherds used to corral their sheep
Jesus spoke to the disciples after His resurrection for 40 days. They see His glory and get first hand revelation and then He leaves. All we have left after that is the message of the disciples.
We sometimes get defensive when God speaks to us through shepherds because of the flaws in the messenger.
What are some of the common/shepherd ways God uses to speak to us?
Through people in our life—a friend, spouse, parents, co-worker
Through our failures and flaws—the people in our life help us to see the areas that are messed up in our life
Through the Bible—Remember when you first started to learn how to use a computer? It seemed strange and it was difficult but the more you read and used it you began to learn it.
Illus. Working for my father in law and learning a new business computer program that he wanted me to learn, implement, and then train someone else to use
God speaking to us is often hard, painful, and takes a lot of work.
Listen to the Message
God's message is NOT, "Live a good life. Try really hard to be good and I will give you a nice, comfortable, and peaceful life."
(ESV) (v.14) "peace among those with whom he is pleased" the (KJV) translates is as "peace on earth good will to men." The message is not a universal declaration of peace toward all humanity. Rather peace is a corollary of justification. God's peace is a gracious gift to those who are the objects of his pleasure.
Heaven and earth have been fighting and now peace is available through God's grace to end the war.
We have been fighting God. All the fighting in the world and in our own heart is because we are fighting God.
How do we fight God? We worry when we can't control things. We want God's job as the one in control. We won't forgive others. We want God's job as judge. We are not satisfied with what we have. We want God's job to determine who does or does not get blessed.
Listen with your Heart
Mary "treasured all these things==treasure means to memorize, to value, to cherish. Did you know that Mary was one of Luke's sources as he was writing the Gospel of Luke? The accounts of Jesus came from first-hand accounts. You can trust the reliability of the Scriptures.
Mary was "pondering them in heart"==ponder means to converse with someone, she conversed with God about what was happening but she also allowed God to speak back to her.
When you go to the Bible you have to do two things: (1) Determine what the Bible means. This takes hard work and a lot of study. You can't just glance over the Word and know what it means. You have to ask questions such as Who? Where? When? What? Why? (2) Next, you have the Word ask you questions. Let the Word penetrate you heart and expose you, comfort you, exhort you, encourage you, challenge you.
Conclusion:
The message of Christmas is that at the heart of the story is a Person who in love wants to speak personally to you. Are you listening? Do you know what He is saying to you?
